Abstract:

Conceptual metaphor is pervasive in our daily life and has played an important role in it. When people aim to interpret something that is abstract and   difficult to be perceived, then they will use a more concrete entity to interpret it so as to be well understood. Metaphor is such a device to fulfill their intentions. Advertising discourse, no matter in China or in Western countries, as a way for sales, has already existed in our surroundings. The advertising discourse is made to seize its customers’ attention, thus achieving its goal of a trade. And the application of conceptual metaphor makes the advertising discourse concise, vivid, artistic and novel, so it will be easier to make a deal. This thesis is pointed to introduce conceptual metaphor and advertising discourse. Then it gives an analysis of different kinds of metaphors in advertisements and their functions. Therefore, readers can have a general understanding about the importance of metaphors in advertisements.

Keywords: Conceptual metaphor; Advertising discourse; Function of metaphor

摘  要：

概念隐喻在我们的生活中随处可见，并起到了非常重要的作用。为了方便解释一些抽象难懂的词，人们通常将之转换为具体的常见的事物来进行解释。隐喻就是人们达成上述目的所使用的一种方法。广告语，无论在中国还是西方，都被作为商家宣传的一种手段，已经成为我们生活中不可缺少的一部分。商家制作广告语是为了引起顾客的注意，从而达到交易的最终目的。而广告语中隐喻的运用，则能使广告语生动传神、新奇有趣，从而更有利于达成交易。本篇论文介绍了概念隐喻以及广告语，然后分析了不同类型的概念隐喻在广告中的应用及其功能，从而阐明了概念隐喻在广告语中所起到的重要作用。

关键词：概念隐喻；广告语；隐喻功能

1    Introduction 
With the rapid development of economy and society, advertisements, to which we are exposed everywhere and every day, have penetrated into every corner of our living surroundings. Advertising is a way that is used to transmit information concerning the products, to open the market and to promote communication, and it is used by advertisers all around the world. In order to catch their customers’ attention, advertising agents make great efforts to keep their advertising discourse as attractive and effective as possible. Conceptual metaphor is one of the useful ways to achieve this purpose.
1.1    Background 
Metaphor is used widely in our daily life, written or spoken. And nowadays, there have been an increasing number of professors concentrating on conceptual metaphor in various fields. The conceptual metaphor theory was proposed by Lakoff and Johnson in their book Metaphors We Live By (1980). It was assumed that “metaphor is conceptual in nature and our everyday thought is largely metaphorical.” Metaphors are the mapping from the source domain to the target domain through which we understand one kind of things in terms of another.